Using Facebook For Business

Some good advice from Gabby Leibovich, co-founder of online group buying site CatchOfTheDay, about how to use Facebook.

While ASX 200 companies are setting up Facebook pages, most don’t understand how to properly engage with customers. At any one time, CatchOfTheDay has more than 1400 “active” Facebook users talking about it on the platform in some way.

“It’s about being transparent, and taking criticism from consumers,” Leibovich says. “Most customers will not say, ‘you have the best site in world. They will tell you things like, ‘your shipping is not as quick as it should be’. I’d rather get that feedback, even if it’s negative, than not receive any feedback at all.” (source)

Many business we talk to are still scared of getting public feedback from their customers. I’ve always had the view that getting negative feedback in public can be a positive thing for a business – IF you handle it correctly.

Let’s face it – customers don’t expect your business to be perfect 100% of the time. That’s just not realistic. What’s important to me as a customer isn’t that the businesses I deal with are perfect – what matters is that when they screw up, they will do their best to fix it. And how do I know they will do that? By seeing them engage with customers on their social sites.

Turn that negative into a positive! Turn that unhappy customer into an active advocate!

Of course, in order to do that, your business needs to have the right systems and strategies in place for handling customer feedback. And you need to genuinely care about happy customers.